Knowledge is Money

I began to trim hooves for money when I was about 11 years old. Lido did a great deal of trimming work with me although he had no real use out of his right arm. When one understands natural horsemanship, hoof care should not be a wrestling match. The principles for maintenence of a healthy hoof are simple. (Treatment of a problem hoof is not so simple and requires professional expertise.)

Because of advances in natural hoof care knowledge, horses that were considered hopelessly lame can often be restored to complete comfort. Tradewind, whose founder in the wild and abcesses were so severe that I never thought that he would be able to move with out pain, is now regularly ridden and has done several rides of 50 miles in one day and has yet to show a hint of lameness. I trim his hooves using techniques that I learned from Pete Ramey's great book on natural hoof care.

This is a shot of Comet's hoof as I prepred to trim it several years ago. Note his huge frog and the sound structure that allows him to trot and canter over rock and gravel every weekend. He has never worn a shoe and will never need to.

In the last two weeks Abbie and Emily have been trimming a lot of my horses. They are just learning the process. They trimmed these already healthy feet as well as I would expect a professional to do. Had I hired someone to do the trimming it would have run between $500.00 and $750.00 to get this level of quality.

Which brings me to my point. Kids who learn natural hoof care not only greatly decrease their cost of horse ownership, they set themselves up to advance either into a full time profession or a great part time job.